Sapphire 5850 Toxic Overclocking

UKDTweak · 14 Mar 2010 at 00:00

The Idea:
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Thought I'd share my OC experience with this card since there is very little info through google, other than review sites stating What They have acheived with their review cards...

The Tools:
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I used Furmark and MSI Afterburner for testing and overclocks/monitoring temps etc...
I also have a GPU Monitor gadget on my desktop which show Load, Temp and Fan speed.

The Method:
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Firstly I ran MSI Afterburner and saved the Default Toxic clock as Profile 1.
Next I ran Furmark Stability Mode, runnning for 3-4 mins to get max temp on the card, and also noted the min, avg and max FPS plus Max temp, I ran this three times.

Once the defaults were logged, I then set Profile 2 to 800 on the core and set the fan to 55% (just noticable over my case fans). From there I increased the core by 5mhz and ran Furmark stability each time until I reached 825 with no artifacts or lockups etc..
I then set about increasing the mem clocks in 5mhz increments, running Furmark Stability test and Benchmark test each time to note if there were improvements or not.

I wont bore you with All these results from above, as I have a few now

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Furmark Settings:
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With each profile now set in MSI Afterburner, I used Furmark Benchmark Mode, set to run 3000 frames @1440/900 windowed mode.

CCC Settings:
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Vysnc is Off by Default and 4x AA enabled and 8x AF in CCC. I ran the test 3 times for each profile loaded in MSI Afterburner.

The Results: Lowest recorded out of three runs each.
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Defaults Clocks: Also saved as profile 1 on MSI Afterburner.
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Core: 765
Mem: 1125
Fan: Auto

Min: 109
Avg: 135
Max: 173

Max temp with fan running on Auto = 70
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Overclocked Settings: Saved as Profile 2 on MSI Afterburner.
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Core: 825
Mem: 1150
Fan: 55%

Min: 125
Avg: 151
Max: 207

Max temp with fan running on 55% = 74, I was Not happy with this temp, so altered the profile to run at 60% while Furmark was still running, temps dropped to 66

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I don't know how much further this card may go, being the Toxic, I cannot alter the voltage, and to be honest, I'm happy to leave it were it is, as its already running plenty fast for the games I play

EDIT: Please see post #8 for update... now running at 850/1200, fan @60.

Martini1991 · 14 Mar 2010 at 07:52

The Toxic edition is a rip off.
I paid 200 for my Asus 5850, yet it performs better than yours, due to the fact I can tweak the voltage. Running at 1000/1250.
It seems the Toxic 5850's use cherry picked cores, yet are unable to be allowed to reach there potential.

UKDTweak · 15 Mar 2010 at 15:53

To be honest, I bought the Toxic for two reasons, it was in stock at a local shop and I was not planning to overclock it at all...

I never bought it with the intention of overclocking, and thought a factory overclock would suit me fine, however, being a OC'er, I eventually gave in to the temptation, hence the OP

It may not clock as fast as your ref model, but it runs cooler and quieter by all accounts, so adding it all up, paying £40 extra was not so bad. You presumably bought yours on release, hence the Much lower cost...

eyetrip · 15 Mar 2010 at 16:26

I have a powercolor 5850, which I have clocked at 950 at 1.2V. I set the fan to 40% for 3D, which is audible but not unpleasant, especially since the noise is drowned out when gaming, and my temps hover around mid 60's when playing BF BC2 at max settings/1920x1200

Your temps of 74C at 825 with what I am assuming is stock volts seems pretty high - only because I thought the toxics were supposed to have better coolers.

Has your case got good airflow? Also, why can't you tweak the voltage?

elrasho · 15 Mar 2010 at 16:50

ffallic said:
I have a powercolor 5850, which I have clocked at 950 at 1.2V. I set the fan to 40% for 3D, which is audible but not unpleasant, especially since the noise is drowned out when gaming, and my temps hover around mid 60's when playing BF BC2 at max settings/1920x1200

Your temps of 74C at 825 with what I am assuming is stock volts seems pretty high - only because I thought the toxics were supposed to have better coolers.

Has your case got good airflow? Also, why can't you tweak the voltage?

You just can't on the Toxics, thats why I refrained from getting one. Saphire must ahve it on lockdown or something

Martini1991 · 15 Mar 2010 at 16:54

UKDTweak said:
To be honest, I bought the Toxic for two reasons, it was in stock at a local shop and I was not planning to overclock it at all...

I never bought it with the intention of overclocking, and thought a factory overclock would suit me fine, however, being a OC'er, I eventually gave in to the temptation, hence the OP

It may not clock as fast as your ref model, but it runs cooler and quieter by all accounts, so adding it all up, paying £40 extra was not so bad. You presumably bought yours on release, hence the Much lower cost...

I bought mine a month ago, shop around and you'll get lucky.
I had a 5870 at launch date.

Also, you can just buy a better cooler, and still be cheaper than a toxic, while outperforming it.

UKDTweak · 15 Mar 2010 at 18:02

The temp with the fan running at 60, while playing BFBC2 at max settings has yet to get over 47, and its bearly noticable over my case fans

You can't alter the voltage as the board is not reference and so does not have the same power chips....

As I already said though... I did not buy the card to OC it, it performs plenty well enough at stock settings, I just thought i'd see were I Could get it and post so other with the same card would have a ref to go by, and as stated in my first post... I have yet to bother trying higher clocks, so no idea how much farther it May go

UKDTweak · 16 Mar 2010 at 18:01

Been doing so more testing... only with Furmark, and Heaven, furmark seams to be good at overheating the GPU so is good for stability..

Now running 3D profile at 850/1200

My desktop monitors and MSI settings...

Heaven Results...

http://img175.imageshack.us/i/heavenf.jpg/

Temp in Furmark got to 65, Heaven never got past 48 !
Now to try some games

G-Dubs · 21 Mar 2010 at 21:35

ASUS 5850

locking at 1000/1100 with 1.3 volts

what am I doing wrong???

Popov · 21 Mar 2010 at 22:12

G-Dubs said:
ASUS 5850

locking at 1000/1100 with 1.3 volts

what am I doing wrong???

Nothing, theres no guarantees with overclocking, thats just what your card will do and 1k on the core is more than respectable but throwing as many volts as you like at the core isn't going to help the memory overclock if it doesn't want to.

Popov · 21 Mar 2010 at 22:14

ffallic said:
I have a powercolor 5850, which I have clocked at 950 at 1.2V. I set the fan to 40% for 3D, which is audible but not unpleasant, especially since the noise is drowned out when gaming, and my temps hover around mid 60's when playing BF BC2 at max settings/1920x1200

I thought the voltage was locked on the Powercolor cards too, or is that just the PCS+ version? :confused:

UKDTweak · 22 Apr 2010 at 22:53

Quick update,

Decided to try getting a little higher OC, was able to bench Furmark @ 900/1250, scoring 5XXX, but games would crash the ATI drivers within a minute of loading

Games would also crash with core @880, but run fine at 870/1230...
Have run 3D Vantage @ 870/1230, but decided to settle for 865/1225, thats 100mhz above Stock Toxic speeds on both core and memory...

Spec and benchmark Screenies linked in my sig

fs123 · 22 Apr 2010 at 23:11

For the price of the toxic it is a better decision to just pay a bit more a go for the 5870. At least with that you can mod the voltage..

UKDTweak · 22 Apr 2010 at 23:13

Well it was a bit of a last minute purchase, found it at a local store, only ATI 5000 series in stock, and the last card too

555BUK · 22 Apr 2010 at 23:43

The BIG benefit of the Toxic edition is noise reduction. IMHO, temps are unimportant so long as the card is stable and within warranty. My current card is actually and Asus reference 5850 which clocks COMPLETELY stable to 1025MHz core / 1300MHz ram. For me the reference design is quiet enough, but I do fully understand why some would prefer lower noise levels offered by non-reference cards.

How many more of these cards would Sapphire have sold if they have spent a few extra pence installing voltage adjustable power regulation?

willhub · 20 May 2010 at 11:24

Are the 5850's better deals than the 5870 despite the lower amount of SP's, can't 5870's hit 1GHz?

RavenXXX2 · 20 May 2010 at 11:40

My reference 5870 hits 1000 core and that's for 24/7 use, some of the non reference boards struggle with decent clocks.

5850 is about on par with a 5870 at same clocks so they are the best to get, best get one that you can adjust the volts on like the reference ones or MSI and Asus cards.

Stanners · 20 May 2010 at 11:42

Would it not also be fair to say some reference boards struggle with good clocks ?

RavenXXX2 · 20 May 2010 at 11:45

Well that's the nature over overclocking, you're not guaranteed to get an amazing clocker, applies to ATI and Nvidia.

UKDTweak · 20 May 2010 at 11:45

The 5850 running at same clocks as a 5870, will be within 5-10% performance wise, so yes, the 5850 is better Bang for Buck!
However, as with all things OC related, you cant guarantee how far your selected card will OC.